System for remotely communicating with domestic appliances

Abstract

A flexible, linked system which can be implemented at low cost for remotely communicating with domestic appliances with their large number of appliance-specific interfaces is afforded if the domestic appliances are connected to a house central station which is equipped with basic software for interrogating the identification of the domestic appliances. By way of the ascertained identification, the house central station obtains from a database the bus access software required for access to the appliance-specific interface and stores it and thus permits communication by way of the appliance-specific interface of the respective appliance.

1 . A system for remotely communicating with domestic appliances having different interface protocols, the system comprising: 
 a database; and    a house central station connected to said database and having basic software for ascertaining identification of a domestic appliance just being addressed, said house central station with knowledge of the identification of the domestic appliance obtaining a corresponding appliance-specific bus access software of the domestic appliance from said database and storing the appliance-specific bus access software.    
     
     
         2 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein said house central station has an Internet connection for obtaining the appliance-specific bus access software from said database being an external database.  
     
     
         3 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein said house central station obtains the appliance-specific bus access software from said database being a locally provided database.  
     
     
         4 . The system according to  claim 1 , further comprising a screen connected to said house central station, said house central station, with ascertainment of the appliance-specific bus access software, obtains information about representation of at least a part of appliance-specific operating and display functions of the domestic appliance for representation and optionally for operation on said screen.  
     
     
         5 . The system according to  claim 1 , further comprising a cable connected between an interface of the domestic appliance and said house central station, communication between the interface of the domestic appliance and said house central station is effected by way of said cable.  
     
     
         6 . The system according to  claim 1 , wherein communication between an interface of the domestic appliance and said house central station is effected wirelessly.  
     
     
         7 . The system according to  claim 5 , wherein said cable is selected from the group consisting of electrical cables and optical cables.